When newly divorced writer eliza hemlock inherits a remote victorian mansion in maine, she sees it as a refuge from her failed marriage, and three years of crippling writer's block. however, the crumbling house comes with an unexpected occupant: the ghost of clara hemlock, a young woman who died during the 1918 spanish flu pandemic under suspicious circumstances. as eliza discovers clara's diary and uncovers the truth about her murder at her own mother's hands, the desperate spirit begins to possess her, seeking to reclaim the life that was stolen over a century ago. with help from the local sheriff, and an elderly woman who knew clara in life, eliza must fight for her identity, while confronting the impossible question of whether clara deserves the second chance she's been seeking. what begins as a terrifying haunting evolves into something far more complex when a supernatural ritual goes catastrophically wrong, transforming clara from a vengeful ghost into flesh and blood. now, truly alive for the first time in over a hundred years, clara must navigate a world that has moved on without her, while struggling with a dark secret: to maintain her impossible existence, she must feed on the life force of living things. as the house dies around them, and clara's hunger grows stronger, eliza faces an agonizing choice between protecting her friend, and protecting everyone else from what clara is becoming-a choice that will force both women to confront what it truly means to live rather than merely exist.